Ocean Shores City Council member and Mayor Pro Tem Eric Noble resigned from his position on Jan 2., citing changing responsibilities at his day job, leaving the city council to fill a vacant seat as two other new council members prepare to take their oaths of office.

According to Ocean Shores City Clerk Sara Logan, Noble, who was entering the third year of a term set to expire in 2025, told the city via email on Tuesday he would no longer be serving on its legislative body.

“Due to work commitments, I will no longer be able to carry out the duties of a council member,” Noble wrote. “I am resigning my seat effective immediately. I do wish you all and the city the best going forward.”

Noble, who has worked as a general manager of a hotel in Ocean Shores since 2014, told The Daily World in a text message that a three-month remodel and his joining a task force to help other resorts were squeezing his upcoming schedule.

“It would be hard to do council and work,” Noble said. “Work is obviously my priority.”

Noble said his decision to resign is unrelated to an ethics complaint filed against him in December that resulted in a verbal admonition after an investigation by three other council members, and unrelated to the recent election win of new Mayor Frank Elduen, who publicly criticized Noble at a city council meeting in September as part of a response to his own ethics charges.

Noble was appointed to the city council in 2018 and was elected in 2019 and 2021. He was selected to serve as mayor pro tem under Jon Martin in 2021. Although his Position 1 seat on the city council wasn’t up for election in November, Noble was ensnared by what many residents and public officials said was the meanest and most spiteful election season in recent memory, much of it fueled by social media.

He also faced several formal ethics complaints earlier in 2023. One accused him of making a slicing motion across his neck with his hand during a public comment period at a city council meeting, while another accused him of liking a Facebook post that criticized a political adversary, Susan Conniry, who filed the complaints. Conniry lost narrowly in a 2023 bid for city council.

The Ocean Shores City Council Code of Ethics — which is separate from the state laws that govern conflict of interest violations and other illegal uses of public office — establishes proper behaviors and guidelines for public action as a city council member, such as treating others respectfully and avoiding intimidating behavior. Residents and public officials can file complaints against council members whose actions they feel have violated the code.

In September, as election temperatures rose, the city’s code enforcement officer, Shaun Beebe, filed an ethics complaint against Elduen, who at the time sat on the city council and was a mayoral candidate. Beebe alleged that Elduen had spoken to him harshly during a phone call disagreement about the placement of Elduen’s campaign signs on a business’ marquee board. In his response to that complaint at a Sept. 25 city council meeting, Elduen said Beebe and Noble “should be charged with election interference and ethics violations.”

The reference to Noble was because, in August, Noble entered the business where Elduen’s campaign signs hung, and told employees to let the owners know he did not approve of the signs on the marquee, and that he wouldn’t be shopping at the store or recommending the store.

Noble responded to the accusations at the Sept. 25 meeting, saying, “The last election I thought was pretty brutal, this one has gone beyond that.” He said that the interaction with the store employees was civil and lasted about 90 seconds, and he went into the store because he didn’t think the signs were good business practice.

“If I offended anybody, or people felt they were intimidated, I deeply apologize,” he said.

He continued by stating that four ethics complaints had been filed against him that year, and said the process “has been used in a very detrimental ways to attack and demean.”

“I can handle it when people attack me verbally, brutally, my character. That’s part of the politics, I get it,” Noble said. “I don’t like it when people do that who have never had a conversation with me.”

He continued, “There is nobody in this town that I hate. I disagree with a lot of people. There is nobody in this town that I hate. There is many, many people in this town that I’ve never had a conversation with that hate me.”

Noble said people had called his place of work and threatened his job, “trying to get me fired and destroy my livelihood.”

On Oct. 5, a group of 22 people, including members of an Ocean Shores citizen advocacy group called Voice of the Shores, filed an ethics complaint against Noble regarding the campaign sign incident, alleging that Noble intimidated store employees. Council members Rich Hartman, Kathryn Sprigg and Lisa Scott were assigned to an ad hoc committee to evaluate the complaint and determine any course of action.

Two months later, on Dec. 4, after deliberations in executive sessions closed to the public, the committee decided that Noble, “by his own admission, violated the ethics policy of the City Council of Ocean Shores.”

“Because we hold ourselves to a higher standard, it is the ad hoc committee’s recommendation that a verbal, non-public admonition be given to Council member Eric Noble,” the decision reads.

Sprigg said a verbal admonition acknowledges an ethical violation and is more severe and a finding of insufficiency but is not as severe as a written reprimand that would be filed in a council member’s personal file. The ad hoc committee’s decision, Sprigg said, included “no recommendation that a council member be censured or removed from office.”

At the following meeting in December, the city council approved updated ethics guidelines for city council members that narrowed the scope of ethics complaints by adding a requirement that to file an ethics complaint an individual must be directly involved in or witness the event on which the complaint is based.

Filling the vacancy

At its next meeting, the city council will begin the process of filling Noble’s seat by officially announcing the vacancy and soliciting application letters from new candidates. According to the city’s website, those letters are due between 9 a.m. on Jan. 9 and 2 p.m on Feb. 2.

To apply, candidates must have been a resident of Ocean Shores for at least one year.

Those who apply will speak to their qualifications in front of the city council at a meeting on Feb. 12. The remaining six council members will then vote to fill the vacancy. At least four votes are required to confirm a selection.

Contact reporter Clayton Franke at 406-552-3917 or clayton.franke@thedailyworld.com.